THE SECRETARY-GENERAL PREPARED REMARKS FOR PRESS ENCOUNTER AT UN HOUSE

SAMOA, August 22 - Apia, Samoa

23rd August 2024

Talofa,

I thank the government and people of Samoa for their warm welcome and exceptional hospitality.

It is a privilege to visit this beautiful island. To experience its rich culture. And to witness both its immense resilience and its extreme vulnerability.

Samoa is a firm friend of the United Nations and an active supporter of multilateralism.

I applaud your fierce advocacy for climate justice in international climate negotiations, and your commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Yet, like many Pacific countries, Samoa is caught in a storm of rising prices, rising seas, and rising geopolitical tensions – compounded by an ailing ocean and woefully insufficient finance.

The average rate of sea level rise has more than doubled since the 1990s.

Today’s rate of increase is unprecedented in at least 3,000 years and likely, since the dawn of civilization, 12 000 years ago. During my visit, I spent time with communities threatened by the rising ocean. High and rising sea level pose an enormous threat to Samoa, the Pacific, and other Small Island Developing States.

These challenges demand resolute international action.

The climate crisis is the gravest threat facing this country and this region – and, quite possibly, the world.

This region, the Pacific, contributes 0.02 per cent of global emissions.

Yet you are on the front lines of the climate crisis, dealing with extreme weather events from raging tropical cyclones to record ocean heatwaves.

Sea levels are rising even faster than the global average, posing an existential threat to millions of Pacific islanders.

People are suffering. Economies are being battered.

And entire territories face annihilation.

The injustice is appalling.

But Pacific islands are not only climate victims. They are leaders.

And Samoa has built extraordinary resilience through Fa’asamoa.

Many countries in this region are at the fore of ambition and action.

And the world must match them.

The fate of the Pacific depends on limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

We need the G20 – the biggest emitters – out in front:

Phasing out fossil fuels – fairly.

And ending fossil fuel expansion – immediately.

All countries must produce new national climate action plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions – by next year, aligned with the 1.5-degree limit on global temperature increase.

And we need climate justice – starting with major contributions to the new Loss and Damage fund, and ensuring that every person is protected by lifesaving early warning systems by [2027].

We also need a massive increase in finance.

In Samoa, and around the world, lack of funds has put ambitious plans for climate action and sustainable development on hold.

We need to simplify access to concessional finance and massively increase the sums available.

We need to reform the Multilateral Development Banks, to massively increase their lending capacity and enable them to leverage far more private finance for development at affordable rates.

We need action on debt – which is soaking up funds in many developing countries.

We have just approved the multi-dimensional vulnerability index. Until no,w a country like Samoa that has huge challenges because it’s a middle-income country would not be able to receive any form of concessional funding or any form of debt relief.

And so we ask the international community to act in a way that when international financial institutions deal with countries like Samoa, the multi-dimensional vulnerability index is taking into account to allow for concessional funding to be granted for the projects that are necessary for this country to achieve the sustainable development goals and protect its populations against climate change.

And we need all countries to honour their promises on climate finance, and a strong finance outcome from this year’s COP where we will discuss the financial commitments after 2025.

We also need international action for the ocean.

The beating heart of Pacific cultures and economies is being exploited, polluted, and degraded.

Climate change, plastic, overfishing and waste are taking a terrible toll.

Pacific nations lead the world in ocean stewardship.

And globally, countries have now agreed on a better course.

I urge all countries to ratify the recent international Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction – to give the ocean, and ocean people, a fighting chance.

Dear friends of the media,

Climate chaos brings its own security challenges. Meanwhile, international tensions are rising and interest in this region from major powers is mounting.

The Pacific is best managed by Pacific islanders. It must never become a forum for geostrategic competition.

I urge all countries to seize the chance presented at the Summit of the Future next month to revitalize multilateral institutions and re-boot multilateral solutions.

We must equip our international system to meet today’s challenges.

And we must push for greater representation – including of Pacific countries, especially in multilateral financial institutions.

On all these issues – together – the United Nations stands with the Pacific in calling for justice and change.

For global action to support the Blue Continent and the future of its people and take in particular consideration the need to massively increase the funding for adaptation of countries that are already suffering the dramatic impacts of climate change.

This is the message I will carry with me to the Pacific Island Forum in Tonga and to the Summit of the Future and the General Assembly in New York.

Thank you.

Question: Your Excellency. I understand you’ve heard the stories about people who are impacted by climate change in your role as the United Nations Secretary-General, how can you help our country and the Pacific fight climate change?

Answer: Well, first of all, raising my voice. And, I’ve been consistently and the UN has been consistently raising our voice to say that we must make sure that all companies align their policies and their nationally determined contributions to 1.5 degrees, and that the big polluters – the G20 countries – drastically reduce their emissions in order to make sure that we do not go on with the present situation that is a situation of suicide for humankind.

On the other hand, we are fighting hard for climate justice. It was possible to have as, you know, the new Loss and Damage Fund. It was possible to have commitments to double adaptation funding, but we are not seeing the money that is needed and that’s why we ask for the reform and the international financial institutions in order for the funding needs of countries, like Pacific countries, to be met.

And finally, we are working closely with all small island developing states in order to make sure that even if they are middle-income countries, their vulnerabilities are recognized in the way they are treated by the international financial institutions.

Question: Secretary-General, my name is Sarah from the Samoa Observer newspaper. Now, thank you for acknowledging that Pacific Island nations, including Samoa, contribute minimally to global emissions. My question is, how does the UN ensure that climate finance is distributed equitably, reflecting the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities?

Answer: Well, we are not distributing the money ourselves. If we were, I can guarantee it would be done in a different way, but we are strongly advocating for climate justice and we are strongly advocating for countries like the small island developing states to first, have access to concessional funding. Second, have access to debt relief. And third, benefit from the redistribution of special drawing rights. And these are the mechanisms that we believe can be put in place in order to allow small island developing states to see an improvement in our financial situation.

And I’m particularly worried with countries that lost with COVID, their tourism industry to a large extent, and that are struggling to recover from those impacts and have not received the support of the international community. When we look at Samoa, we understand what that means and we never stop fighting to make sure that this is recognized by the international community.

Question: Just wanted to ask about your visit to Alipata. I understand you visited the place where the tsunami had been in 2019. Personally, for you what do you think of how the families that were affected by the tsunami have, how they’ve recovered?

Answer: I think they have shown an enormous resilience. We have seen people that moved their houses inland. We have seen people that persisted coming back and rebuilding. We have seen an enormous determination of people to fight against, not only the impact of the tsunami, but the impacts of the rising sea levels and of the storms and the cyclones.

I’ve seen a wall that is protecting a village from the sea. That wall in 20 years, because of the tsunami, because of the rising sea level, and because of the heavy storms, has already been built three times. This demonstrates, the determination and resilience of Samoa and the people of Samoa, not giving up against all odds and making sure that the population is protected.

Question: I understand this is your first time in Samoa, can you give us an impression on what you think about our country?

Answer: I would say that. At first impression, what impresses us is the extreme beauty of the country. But much more important than the beauty of the country – because there are many individual countries in the world – it is the warmth of its people. It is the strength of its culture. It is the tradition that we see in its communities. It’s the history of the country, of the people of Samoa, and the Polynesian peoples that were able with their canoes for centuries to go all around the Pacific and build the communities, the lively communities, that we all see from I mean, the same Polynesians from Tonga, and Samoa to Hawaii to New Zealand to Papete. Showing an extraordinary capacity that the international community must recognize.

Thank you very much.

END.

SOURCE – UNDP in Samoa, Cook Islands, Tokelau & Niue

Photo by Government of Samoa (Leaosa Faaifo Faaifo)